Brave New World
by DelaneyPaige
Summary: She was running from a past she couldn't escape. He was slowly destroying a future he couldn't face. And their attraction was undeniable, unstoppable. But what happens when the dark sins of the past cannot stay buried. Damon/Elena Completely AU with random Delena quotes thrown in
1. Last Beautiful Girl

_This was inspired while watching a video of Rob Thomas and Joss Stone singing "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" and I could just see this as a story __J_

_And on a side note please see that I have changed the Grammy's to happening later in the year, it had to work for my timeline around October __J_

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or the Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty Lyrics**

**Sunday, November 2, 2013  
L.A, California**

He stood motionless in the flashing light that cast shadows across his chiseled features and body as he tilted his head back and for a moment inhaled the crowd's adulation.

He was all rugged angles and sharp planes, his defined shoulders stretching against the fabric of his black shirt, the suggestion of power emphasized by the strong line of his back tapering down to lean hips. The muscular ease of his stance evident as his fingers stroked, plucking against chords of the battered acoustic guitar when he moved towards the center stage with the confidence of a seasoned performer.

The harsh lights dimmed, creating a soft glow, a warm hue of color, around the performers as the melody of the intricate guitars and pulsating rhythm of the drums filled the atmosphere, echoing with his earlier spoken promise.

_ "It's going to be performance unlike anything you've seen before," his voice was low, his timbre husky, a smirk curling the corners of his full, sensual lips. "That I guarantee you."_

The proclamation from the charismatic frontman of Salvatore who was notorious for his art of being illusive during his interviews had dangled the tease before viewers and attendants of the 2013 Grammy Awards during the opening ceremonies.

A performance not of new material or even his own, but rather a pairing with an unknown to the music industry.

A moment that would etched, unlikely to be forgotten.

And it had finally arrived after all the anticipation.

Only it was not Damon Salvatore's husky voice rasping against the tender words as expected.

_** "Baby you'll come knocking on my front door  
**__**Same old line you used to use before"**_

Her silhouette rose from the shadows of the stage, her voice smooth and potent to the words that were plaintive, vulnerable, but became seductive as she made the low, torchy ballad ache and burn with a certain weakness.

_** "I said ya...well...what am I supposed to do  
**__**I didn't know what I was getting into"**_

The mist, the lights, the music, this woman.

She enjoyed the sheer drama of it when she heard the sharply drawn breathe of the entertainment world as she sauntered across the platform revealing her presence in a silky dark plum minidress, the delicate material embossed with a thin golden thread that wrapped around her neck, leaving the graceful curve of her shoulders bare.

Elena Gilbert, the infamous runaway heiress, seemed so unlike the tabloid headlines she had once epitomized through a mixture of cultivated innocent and the swiveling of her hips into a sequence of raw emotion and talent.

_** "So you've had a little trouble in town  
**__**Now you're keeping some demon down"**_

Their voices blended together in a perfect harmony of raw emotion, husky to soft, male to female, almost a touching of burning desire.

The man pressed against her cleverly assaulting her sense was not an illusion. He was flesh and blood that made her want to taste the texture of his skin.

Slowly to Damon's rhythm, her body began to turn and dip, a glitter of color and fluid movement. She brought her hands up swaying, an allurement to tempt him, to tease him as her golden bangles clanked against one another, sliding down her arms. Damon's attention focused on her, only her, as if they were bound together by invisible threads.

Taunting the other.

_** "Stop draggin' my...Stop draggin' my...  
**__**Stop draggin' my heart around" **_

His striking cerulean blue eyes locked on hers, the intense gaze darkened to a slight indigo as he caressed over her form examining the glossy mass of straightened hair shimmering in a tumble about her bare shoulders and midway down her back to the curve of her breasts and her slender legs.

_** "It's hard to think about what you've wanted  
**__**It's hard to think about what you've lost"**_

Being witness to her standing against her fear made him want to crush his mouth fiercely to her own. To feel the pure, primitive male triumph roar through him at the evidence of her own arousal.

_** "This doesn't have to be the big get even  
**__**This doesn't have to be anything at all"**_

There was a certain radiance to her dusky skin that caused her to glow and her feet were bare, sparkling tips revealed. She put everything she felt into the song. The last of her regret, her shame, shedding as if was an ugly second skin she desired to leave behind and emerged as poised sophistication.

_** "I know you really want to tell me good-bye  
**__**I know you really want to be your own girl"**_

Damon flipped his disheveled raven hair from his eyes, his tone conjuring, seducing her as she moved closer, brushing against him.

He had the sex, the drive, the passion and talent for writing evocative, manipulative lyrics that always held a quality of romanticism that was gentle.

What he sang were not his words.

But this performance was his, it was hers, theirs together.

_** "Baby you could never look me in the eye  
**__**Yeah you buckle with the weight of the words"**_

This performance was different.

Her russet eyes burned with the truth of a dangerous age and he found himself exposing his soul, his darkness to the captivated audience.

_** "Stop draggin' my...Stop draggin' my...  
**__**Stop draggin' my heart around"**_

The music surrounded them in a feeling of reverence, swirling through each, her eyes full of Damon betraying her to the world, causing his fingers to momentarily falter against the chords, shifting uncomfortably to ease his erection pressing against the zipper of his black pants.

_** There's people running 'round loose in the world  
**__**Ain't got nothing better to do"**_

He was the reason she was here.

She had been content, satisfied in her moment of peace away from the world that had almost destroyed her.

She felt the strength of his hands as he stared directly into her eyes, making her blood rush hotly through her veins.

She had been unable to refuse.

**_ "I know you really want to tell me good-bye  
__I know you really want to be your own girl"_**

His voice grew guttural with his increasing need.

She has begun to work for him as a favor to an old friend, when her desire had faded into a blur of betrayal.

And the princess had become the villain at the hands of her own blood.

Could this be her redemption.

_** "Baby you could never look me in the eye  
**__**Yeah you buckle with the weight of the words"**_

Their bodies brushed, lingered and moved away.

Never more than a whisper from brushing, their gestures were long, slowly exaggerated.

The audience was drawn forward obvious to the sexual, the smoothness with what was unimagined and what was so.

_** "Stop draggin' my...Stop draggin' my...  
**__**Stop draggin' my heart around"**_

She watched him through thick black lashes, his head bent towards her, so close to tasting, as the music faded.

Their gazes held, and for her, just for a moment, they were completely alone.

She had given him was he had challenged, what he had demanded.

And trembled.

There was a pause, the most satisfying to where the audience is captivated in its stunned collective breath before applause thundered.

As they exited the stage, they were immediately bombarded with directions and time limit instructions, but Damon shrugged aside their questions and pulled her into his dressing room.

Elena spun once entering the room, her eyes dancing with glee, a smile she was unable to contain curving her lips.

Damon turned to look at her, running his hand through his already disheveled dark hair, his blue eyes light with mischief. "So how do you feel?" He spread his arms slightly, feigning a mildly shocked expression and a smirk curled his lips.

"I feel good." Elena giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her body close to his unaware his eyes shut, immense satisfaction so close to contentment drifting across his features. "I feel alive."

_ I don't think I've ever seen you more alive._

His words echoed through her mind, a truth she had finally admitted too.

His arms tightened around her waist as she played with the small hairs at the base of his neck, their foreheads a whisper from touching. She felt ever restriction she had placed on her feelings begin to waiver as her eyes drifted open to meet his darkened look she desperately wanted to understand, her lips a breath from his.

This was what she needed.

"Well isn't this just a beautiful picture," his voice interrupted the quiet moment as Elena jerked away, his voice causing her to cringe back slightly.

"Stefan," her eyes going wide with shock at the sight of her former fiancée as his gaze swept over her, lingering on Damon in disgust.

She felt the ripple of Damon's body as he stepped forward, he was taunt, tense, the long sleek muscles contracting with an involuntary motion as he pulled her behind him. He felt two small hands slip around his waist from behind and he placed his fingers over hers, her head resting on his back.

"Hello brother."


	2. Welcome

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or Christina Aguilera lyrics**

"**Welcome to the greatest show  
Greatest show on earth  
You've never seen before  
Here the fairytale unfolds"**

**WELCOME, Christina Aguilera**

**September 20, 2013**  
**Las Vegas, Nevada**

Jail, Elena Gilbert wearily decided, was not a place for the weak or timid.

She stared blankly ahead, her dark eyes fixating on the gray cement wall in front of her, her nose crinkling in disgust at the scent of the cell reeking with urine, alcohol and vomit.

She pulled her bare legs up, locking her arms around her knees, gently rocking back on the padded bench, attempting to warm her petite frame. Her forehead wrinkled as she concentrated on ignoring the angry complaints of the prostitute because she was losing out on her money or the drug addict well past his nightly fix.

She knew she was an outsider in their midst.

She was impeccably dressed in her black mini-dress that gathered in the front and back, her red chiffon covered Christian Louboutin heels carelessly discarded on the dirty ground. She reached back, pulling down her silky strands of hair, allowing them to drape across her face, blocking out the questioning gazes of her cellmates.

But never had she felt so satisfied.

A small smirk settled across her features as she ran a manicured fingertip over the jagged pieces of her knuckles, wincing slightly. An almost broken hand and a night in jail with the possibility of a hefty fine and public service were in her opinion was a well-earned reward rather than a punishment.

Not that her parents would see the situation as such. Her father's face would turn to stone, his glare filled with disappointment and disgust while her mother would simply project whichever emotion her husband demanded.

Elena could already Grayson Gilbert's voice, booming as he would lecture about the proper etiquette of society standards that she must live by in order to not tarnish the Gilbert name. As the only child of the millionaire casino owner and the sophisticated art dealer, they expected perfection and were disappointed that she had always managed to fall short.

Katherine Pierce, however, her beautiful cousin that had come to live with her family after an car accident claimed the life of her parents when she was thirteen, was the very essence of what a proper heiress should be, or at least that is what she had fooled everyone in believing.

Elena's expression turned grim as the night's event replayed through her mind. Walking into her fiancée's, Stefan Salvatore's, loft eager for their anniversary dinner only to find Katherine on his bed, naked and moaning as he thrust into her from behind, smirking once they were discovered.

She screamed alright, Elena thought, especially when I grabbed her by the hair and dragged her in the front yard.

There had been an overwhelming sense of immense satisfaction in cracking her fist across Katherine's nose, blood dripping from the once perfect surgically formed piece. She had even managed to get her claws into Stefan before the police had arrived, charging her with disturbing the peace and assault.

Oh, but it had been well worth it. Hopefully resulting in pictures that could be splashed all over the tabloids, a new sex scandal to keep the paparazzi gleeful for weeks.

And in those weeks she could quietly hide, nursing her bruised heart and wounded pride. The realm of Stefan's betrayal had not even begun to settle in her mind.

"Gilbert," the officer's voice caused her head to snap up. "You have visitors."

She groaned slightly.

Her father, handsome and powerful in his navy suit, ran a hand through his perfectly coiffed hair as he glanced around the cell in concentration at the drunken and dirty inhabitants. Miranda Gilbert smiled awkwardly at her daughter, occasionally brushing imaginary lint from her cream sheath dress.

"How could be you be so stupid?" Grayson hissed, anger sipping into every word. "Were you even thinking?"

"Elena, dear," Miranda began as she placed a calming had on his arm. "You tend to act on rash emotion. There are certain standards that you must maintain."

"A bad reflection on my part?" Elena cried, her eyes narrowing in disbelief at the judgment she saw reflecting in their eyes, snapping to her feet, attempting to ignore the sticky substance she had stepped into. "You've got to be fucking kidding me!"

"Language Elena." her mother scowled at her.

"Oh piss off mother." Elena said, throwing her hands up. "I have every right to be upset. She is my cousin, my own flesh and blood, and she was in bed with _my _fiancée. This was not sharing clothes or closet space, this was the man that said he loved me, but had no problem fucking Katherine the minute my back was turned."

"Katherine assures me that there is proper explanation for what you witnessed, if you had only listened."

"You're seriously not taking her side over mine? Your own daughter?"

"Elena, this is not about choosing sides," Grayson assured her, ignoring her snort of disagreement. "You have to understand Katherine's situation. She's lost her parents, her sense of stability -"

"Eight years ago," Elena interrupted harshly, thrusting an agitated hand through her hair, restraining the urge to yank on it in frustration. "Yes, it was horrible. Yes, no child should have to live through that at such a young age, but how long can you use that as an excuse for every action in her life. She hurt _me_. You're suppose to protect _me_."

"Katherine was foolish, she admits that, but you should have controlled your anger. There is a dignified manner on how to handle the situation and dragging her naked into the street was not one of them."

"Really? Because I thought bringing the trash to the curb seemed to be the perfect answer."

Grayson pinched the bridge of his nose, irritated at his daughter's inability to see his sense of reasoning.

"You'll apologize an issue…"

"And monkey's will dance in hell first. She is backstabbing whore and I will make sure that the world knows it."

"Oh Elena, I never meant to hurt you." Katherine's voice was frail as she stumbled forwarded, her dark eyes glazed with tears and she reached out a quivering hand only to have Elena slap in away.

"We'll leave you two to talk."

"I would applaud your performance," Elena stated, lightly laughing, impressed at how skillfully Katherine had manipulated the situation to her advantage. "I love the tears. It's a sweet touch, but you really don't want me to let go of these bars. Your extensions may suffer if I do."

Katherine raised her perfectly arched brows in a gesture of innocence. "I don't think that would be appropriate darling, considering I am the victim after all." she taunted, pushing her dark hair across her shoulders. "It wouldn't be so fun if you're parents weren't so gullible."

"That's a nice shade of purple," Elena said, gesturing towards the bruise highlighting her nose and under her eyes. "I do so hope your nose is broken."

"The bruise is worth every minute of this. Stefan loved every minute of fucking me, screaming my name." Katherine smile gleefully as she watched Elena's hands tighten around the iron bars in reaction. "Did you really accept him to remain faithful?"

"I'd rather be an ice princess than his whore. That is a job you are more than welcome too. But I will tell you what you are going to do. You are going to go out there and drop the charges you filed against me."

"Silly girl, why would I do that? I'm getting everything I wanted."

"I don't blame you for feeling that way, but in the future, I would recommend not leaving your cell phone unattended." Elena's tone turned mocking as Katherine paled. "I mean you wouldn't want those sex and drug binge videos you so foolishly took to be shown to the world."

"You have nothing," Katherine insisted, fear forming at the base of her stomach. "No proof."

"Are you really so sure? Do what you need to do to sign the papers - flash him your implants, drop to your well-worn knees, I don't fucking care what you do, but those charges are going to be dropped."

Katherine glared at her, attempting to see if she was lying, but Elena simply smiled back at the face so much like her own.

"The clock is ticking."

A tense moment of silence passed before Katherine shook her head, pleased with her deduction.

"You're bluffing. I won't drop the charges."

"That's unfortunate for you then," Elena drawled, shrugging her shoulders. "But I bet for the right price I can get Kol to sing and release the pictures though."

The color slowly drained from Katherine's face at the name of her former lover/dealer.

"Now," Elena smiled sweetly. "Are you planning to sign something this evening."

**September 20, 2013**  
**Las Vegas, Nevada**

Elena stood, suddenly tired as she looked around her spacious penthouse suite. There was nothing was nothing undesirable about her life. The endless supply of shopping, of parties and willing men - something millions fantasized about and thousands cursed her for.

And at this moment she would gladly hand it to them, walk off and never look back.

Who could she trust, who could she believe to stand by her side when not even her parents would.

She needed a change.

She leaned down, picking up the corded telephone since her father had taken her cell as part of her punishment and dialed a familiar number. She gnawed on her lower lip, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Uncle Ric, it's Elena. I need your help."

**September 20, 2013**  
**New York, New York**

Damon Salvatore rolled to his side, groaning slightly as the covers pulled from his body. Sleepily he opened his blue eyes, wincing as a headache began to form, and he sat up, staring down at the woman sprawled out next to him.

"Shit," he murmured.

He hadn't meant to sleep with her, but with each shot of tequila he had drank, the more appealing her advances had appeared. He had made it a rule to not fuck anyone who was part of his tour. It often ended with clinging hands and harsh sobs on one end. And he knew that Andie would be no different.

Damon leaned over, intent on ordering the naked girl from his room, but his cell phone ran and a small grin tugged at his lips when he saw the number.

The man had never had a proper sense of time.

"Salvatore."

"Damon, it's Ric. I need a favor."

"**Is it all blue skies  
Fun and games untill you fall  
Then you're left without anyone at all  
You're riding on a shooting star  
With a smile upon your face  
But soon the shine fades"  
**


End file.
